NBA Finale

So the curtain comes down on the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the final series 4-1 over the Orlando Magic today. I will be sorry to see it end. It can be incredibly frustrating at times, but time after time the same patterns repeat and if you can keep cool and see the big picture in the heat of battle, it's the easiest of sports to find an edge in.

2007-08 was a good season for me. Here's what I wrote back in October:

http://green-all-over.blogspot.com/2008/10/nba-is-back.html

Without a doubt, my favourite trading sport is back today with three games. Trading NBA games in-play is wonderfully exciting with the market quite often "wrong" during games. I have been watching for three seasons now, and learning and improving each year.

Liquidity is generally good, except on nights when most teams are in action when the money can be spread a little thinly, and there is no comparison with ice hockey.

Rather disappointing to see that BETDAQ are not turning these games in-play, but I will be placing my occasional straight punts on there.

Who will win the NBA Championship this year? My fancy is last year's losing finalists the Lakers (4.6 to win the NBA championship) in the strong West, with the Spurs (14) and the Suns (20) safe lays.

In the East, my lay is the Celtics (4.7). It's been a few years since a champion has repeated, and I don't expect Boston to end that sequence. Despite losing their opener, the Cavaliers (18) are good value to again make the play-offs and win the East.

Pretty good, if I do say so myself. Bottom line is a very pleasing increase of 112% on last season (excluding the Premium Charge, unfortunately) helped by that pre-season back of the Lakers.

And for once, the play-off games proved profitable for me. I think the problem here was that subconsciously, the fact that the game is a 'bigger' game than the regular season games was putting pressure on me to 'improve', and win even more. It doesn't work like that. In fact, it works against me since any opportunities that might arise in a game are that much more likely to be snapped up by someone else!

Now to work on improving again for next season!